Friday, 30 May 2008

I managed to make Hope's pajama's in record time, so that they were ready for when she got home from school camp! As you can see she had a little mishap at camp, twisting her ankle, and don't look too closely - her feet are FILTHY! I guess it's time for a bath!

I had an email from one of my readers (Marie) and she asked how I went about making my lounge pants, so thanks to her I decided to make a tutorial for you all. :)

They are super easy and here's how:

Requirements;1 metre of chosen fabric (mine here is 120cm wide, and I didn't use the whole metre)threadold pair of pajamas or trousers to base pattern ongood fabric scissors

1. Fold the fabric into half, then half again lengthwise. If I was making proper trousers I would be more careful, and would probably fold in half once, make one side and then place that onto the fabric again to make the other leg - but I'm lazy... Lay your old pajamas onto the folded fabric with the fold against the fold, sewn edge should face the selvedge.

2. Cut the fabric, making sure to give yourself a seam allowance - I gave myself just over a centimetre at a guess. Make sure you leave enough at the bottom and top for hemming and elastic casing.

3. The back needs to be higher than the front, so cut about 1 centimetre off at a slight gradient.

this is what the legs look like at this point

4. Here comes the BORING part. Zig-Zag around the entire edge of the fabric.

5. Now sew the inside seam of each pajama leg. I don't even bother to pin, but you could if you wanted to be careful.

6. Here's where I use the pins. Pin both sides of the crotch together, making sure the centre of the inside leg seam lines up with the other side.

7. Sew together, reinforcing the crotch area by sewing back and forth a few times.

8. Make the casing for the elastic by folding and ironing the fabric at the waist. I fold/iron about 1/2 a centimetre in first, and then enough to cover the size elastic I am using.

9. Sew the elastic casing, leaving a gap to thread the elastic.

10. Just like when you made the casing, iron the hemline of both legs twice.

once

twice

11. Sew both hems.

12. Thread the elastic into the casing. Then sew elastic together using the zig-zag stitch. Sew up the gap you left to thread the elastic.

TAH! DAH!

If you have any questions, just leave a comment... :) Please excuse the photo's, I'm no professional!

Thanks to Jodz for the idea of getting fabric from the curtain section of Spotlight, I am now in possession of 4 great fabrics. They are going to make some great pyjama bottoms for both me and the girls. The cost was so VERY cheap ($2 a metre)! That makes making them myself affordable and worth the extra effort. I am thinking plain t shirts on the top, with perhaps something appliquéd or freezer paper stenciled for interest.

for mefor the Aimster (9 years old)

for Bree (8 years old)for Hope (11 years old)

I am sure Jodee recognises the fabric I chose for Bree, as she used it when she decorated her 5 year old daughter's bedroom... ;) I just LOVE it!

Don't forget you have about 6 more hours to enter my 200th post giveaway as I am doing the draw tonight at around 8pm NZ time! So get to it if you want to win. You can enter as many times as you like - so if you want another chance, go for it!

Tuesday, 27 May 2008

I managed to get to my local op shop's this morning. It was a lot of fun finding some new little bargains, although I didn't find any more vintage sheeting for some new lounge pants. I think I may need to go for a little outing to Spotlight for that, unfortunately.

Here are some photo's of my finds... (all from the Sallies)Someone obviously spent a bit of time making some patchwork squares, was it for a quilt or a different project? My interest is peeked. I have dreams for them now though...

Monday, 26 May 2008

I've been wanting to make myself some lounge pant's ever since the phenomenon of making them out of old sheets etc. hit the blogging world.

These are my first attempt, and I need to say one thing before I go any further - if you are going to use an old pair of pants to base your pattern on, make sure they fit first! Mine are just a wee bit tight, they're comfy, but just on the "almost can't get into them" scale. Yes, I did make seam allowances - so that wasn't it! I will still wear them, cos' I love the fabric. In fact, you can win some of the gorgeous vintage fabric in my giveaway contest!

I love, love, love them! And now I just HAVE to go op-shopping tomorrow to see if I can't get another cute sheet to attempt a second pair!

Sunday, 25 May 2008

One of my favourite blogs would have to be sugar*sugar and every Sunday she and a number of other bloggers decide on a new topic for Show and Tell Sunday. Today's topic is beautiful china, silver and crystal, last weeks was vintage linens. It has peeked my interest and so I've decided to join in!

I love china. I collect tea pots, and have a small collection of tea cup sets (the kind grandma used!). I have a tiny bit of silver and an even tinier amount of crystal. My true love will always be china. :)

I wanted to photograph just one item for my show and tell, and here it is:

a tiny tea cup and saucer

I managed to find it at a small table at a local craft market, the seller said he got it from an estate sale. There were more cups to the set, but I had a limit to what I wanted to spend and with so many other bargains to be had I decided one cup and saucer was enough. I love how delicate the little blue flowers are.

Well, here we are - 200 posts since I began this blog. I have loved having a place to show off and its been super fun meeting other creative people who love crafting. Now, I want to give back. I just hope that I get more people entering this giveaway than I had on the pay it forward challenge! I have been planning this ever since I missed the typical 100th post giveaway and after some help from my wonderful 11 year old daughter I feel like I have some great stuff to give to someone like you!

I have included some vintage and some new items which I hope someone out there will enjoy!

It's simple to enter, just leave a comment below as many times as you'd like! Someone will win on the 28th May (NZ time - so 27th for anyone in the states!), giving you one week to enter! Don't forget to tell all your friends...

Tuesday, 20 May 2008

I have discovered that sometimes great things come your way, if you only wait... (and having a book list on your blog helps too...)

When I was in Christchurch, my most wonderful sister asked me if I still was after "the creative family" book! I, of course, squealed YES!!! And so I am now the proud owner of yet another great craft/blog book!

I love the simplicity and back to basics Amanda Blake Soule's blog is and the book is in the same vein. I only wish it had more projects, as that was what I love gleaning from her blog!

I think if you have "younger than mine" children then this book would come in handy. It will still be a great asset to my burgeoning shelves!

My good friend Jodee came over this morning for coffee and we changed the look of her fantastic little blog(yes, she caught the bug from moi!!!).

Go take a look, she has a few great little posts up already! She hasn't seen the header yet, I was creative after she left, so that could be in for some changes in the future. I am certain all of us remember the days of learning how to use blogger - the days we asked "how'd they do that?" of other peoples blogs. Anyway, take a look, give some feedback, have fun! :D

Some of you may have noticed this little picture on my blog over the past couple of months and wondered about it. Well, I LOVE swaps. I love getting packages ready for others and of course receiving something special in the post, though I'm sure my postie doesn't appreciate that as much as me...

Well, this one was all about SPRING, which if you know where I live (New Zealand), you'd know we're heading not for spring but for winter. It was extra fun thinking of spring when it was getting colder outside!

Actually, it turned out both my swapee and swaper partners are Canadian, and I received my parcel TODAY! YAY!

I am so excited about the yarn, she put in 4 balls of sugar 'n cream cotton and some really nice merino sock yarn she must've been reading my blog ;). A bag of super nice flavoured coffee beans, a little yarn holder bag thingee, some spring tissues and a cute little lamb magnet which has already been commandeered by my 8 year old!

I'm not sure if my swap partner has received my parcel yet so I won't post about it until I know she received it!

Interesting news from blogland; copied directly from io9I'm not a big letter-writing campaign person, but a line has been crossed when the BBC starts taking away cute knitted dolls that look like Doctor Who monsters. Apparently some kind of copyright nonsense inspired a wanker at BBC legal to force the nice knitter at Mazzmatazz to remove all the cool patterns posted there for people who wanted to make plush animals out of the Ood (above) and several others. Let remind you that the Ood are born with their brains in their hands, sing psychically, and have already been oppressed enough by humans. Now I am deprived of these cute yarn monsters and I am angry. Please write to the BBC and complain. The cruelty must stop! [EFF]

Monday, 12 May 2008

So, I promised that I'd post about this last week, but life got on top of me and my husband totaled his work car, so... here we are, and I think I can finally share some about what it was all like and share a few photographs along the way!

The day started out cold, it couldn't decide whether to be sunny or not, but at least it wasn't raining (or snowing! - it snowed the next Saturday!!!).

I packed bib's, dishcloths, oven gloves and cards in my suitcase and ended up selling $41 worth of things (mainly bib's and a few oven gloves!).

It was so much fun and I LOVED getting feedback from people on their thoughts on my crafts. And now I have the money to open up my etsy store - so keep an eye on the blog for more news on that front.